First Date

My first "date" with my now-fiancee was, like many things in China, done from a decidely group-think approach.

We met at work, and our first time hanging outside of work (breaking the rules, I might add, since he was the foreign teacher assisstant and wasn't supposed to date the foreign teachers...my boss had explicitly told him when I first started working there "you can't date this girl." His reply, "What if I quit?" haha, but anyway...)....yeah, first time to go out was during the May holiday when we had a four-day break from work.

We had talked about hanging out, although I was kind of thrown off when he texted inviting me to hang out with him...and his American best friend. Uh....was this like a group interview? While I was a little bit weirded out, I decided to go with the flow...had a feeling about this guy.

So, he picked me up on his motorbike (my first time riding on the back of one of those) and we headed to the mall to meet his friend. Upon meeting, my fiance's friend exclaimed "nice to finally meet you!" (implying conversation about me before).

It was an eventful few days...that day we went to a coffee shop, walked around, went to play pool and along the way encountered some friends from Xinjiang who we sat outside drinking beers with while they sang songs in Uiyghur. We went back to his friend's place and watched some movies, and I feel asleep. I woke up in the wee hours of the morning, wondering where I was, and finding myself covered with his leather jacket, him sleeping beside me on the couch (not shady, I swear!).

When he woke up, we chatted quietly on the couch while his friend slept. "I feel like you're my neighbor or something." He said. "Uh, really?" "Yeah, like...I can just talk to you...like I've known you for a long time." He then proceeded to show me a card trick, which he adorably messed up multiple times while I feigned amazement.

We went to play mahjong, and at the end of the night I went to part ways, saying I was heading to the coffee shop. He came along, and we had our "dtr"/"where do you see this going" talk...initiated by him.

While dating is usually more serious to begin with in the States, his talking about the future weirdly didn't freak me out (that was not the case with a very brief previous relationship with another Chinese guy...one mention of marriage and I was closed off).

The next two days of the holiday we went out with coworkers, had our first kiss (best one I've ever had), and more. While it was the most random experience letting our first date turn into a 3 day event, I'm glad I went with the flow on that one....